The basis of the invention are problems that are connected with manufacture, distribution and handling of replaceable cutting inserts for tools for chip removing machining of above all workpieces of metal or composites, such as turning, milling, or drilling. The proper tools are usually manufactured from steel, while the chip removing cutting inserts are manufactured from a harder and more wear-resistant material, such as cemented carbide, cermet, etc., that allows the forming of utmost sharp cutting edges. In spite of their relative resistance to wear, the cutting inserts are, however, wear parts, because the same have a limited service life (at times 5-15 min) and which therefore are consumed in large quantities. Most manufacturers have in addition developed not only a large number of tool types, but also myriads of insert types; all with the purpose of optimizing the performance of the tools/cutting inserts in most varying applications. Large-scale manufacturers may accordingly provide 100-150 000 different types of cutting inserts.
Against the above background, the logistics between the mass-producing manufacturer and the individual machine operator using the cutting inserts is in many cases complicated and multifaceted. A factor contributing to complicate the logistics is that the buyers are differently large. Some are small and only consume few cutting inserts, while others are large or medium-sized and consume greater quantities. For instance, large workshops may have a daily total need of thousands of cutting inserts, although these are distributed in smaller and varying sets in different machines. For the machining of a certain workpiece, one turning insert, four milling inserts and two drill cutting inserts may perhaps be required.
A previously known and widely spread package for cutting inserts is in the form of a box that is manufactured from form-stiff plastic and includes on one hand a trough part having a plurality of individual pigeon-holes, and on the other hand a sliding lid. In a standard embodiment, such boxes include pigeon-holes distributed in two rows having five pigeon-holes in each row, i.e., in total ten individual pigeon-holes. After manufacture, the cutting inserts are filled into these pigeon-holes by an automatized process, usually by means of a picking robot. More precisely, the ten pigeon-holes are loaded with cutting inserts of one and the same type, the box being provided with information relevant to exactly this insert type. However, the practical consumption of the cutting inserts rarely or never takes place in sets of exactly ten and ten. On the contrary, the consumption most often takes place in a most varying way, irrespective of whether or not the buyer is a large-scale consumer. At times, a certain machining, e.g. a single, external turning of a workpiece, may accordingly require only one or a few cutting inserts. In such cases, the other cutting inserts in a box of ten inserts have to be handled in a particular order. In certain cases, the excess cutting inserts are repacked in provisional packages, e.g. plastic bags, or the box will simply be lying, most often without tidiness, in the surroundings of the machine.
With the purpose of creating tidiness in the workshop and getting better control of the consumption, particular automatic machines or dispenser apparatuses have recently been installed that are loaded with individual cutting inserts, which are picked out one by one by the authorized machine operator, who can open the automatic machine by means of a magnetic card or code memory board. However, these machines require that the cutting inserts are stored individually. When a standard box with, e.g., ten cutting inserts arrives to the workshop, the same therefore has to be repacked in one-piece packages, usually in the form of plain plastic bags that are suspended on a spear in the automatic machine. Such repackings are not only time-consuming and costly, but also entails that the cutting edges of the cutting inserts are damaged. This way of opening a box of ten inserts and by hand picking over the cutting inserts into small bags or other provisional one-piece packages, also entails several other disadvantages. Among other things, the information included in the original box is lost. Often, this information is utmost important for a good machining result because it features a lot of insert data, information about origin, warning notes, etc.
Objects and Features of the Invention
The present invention aims at obviating the disadvantages of previously known insert packages and at providing a package that is particularly suitable for the storage and distribution of cutting inserts from a mass-producing manufacturer to individual buyers. Therefore, a primary object of the invention is to provide a package that is intended for the containment of only one or at most two cutting inserts and, on one hand, has a surface extension that is sufficiently large to effectively expose all the information required for allowing utilizing the cutting insert in question in an optimal way, but, on the other hand, can be piled or packed in a space-saving way. An additional object is to provide a package that allows a reliable control and guidance of most varying flows of cutting inserts from the manufacturer to the buyer. Among other things, the individual cutting insert should, by means of the package, be traceable all the way back from the machine operator (e.g. after a breakdown has occurred or an inferior work result) to the original manufacturer. The package should furthermore, when it is opened or broken, be able to convince the machine operator that the cutting insert in question originates from exactly the indicated manufacturer.
In order to achieve at least the primary object, the package defined by way of introduction is characterized in that the panels of the base part as well as of the cover comprises two seats, which—in the lowered position of the cover—are laterally and equidistantly separated from the storage bubble. In this way, the packages can be piled or packed close to each other without unnecessary space in the direction perpendicular to the panels being occupied. More precisely, the lower half of a protruding bubble can be inserted into an open seat when adjacent packages have been rotated in relation to each other (90° and 120°, respectively, according to the embodiment examples).
In a feasible embodiment, the individual seat as well as the bubble has a no circular contour shape.
In one embodiment, the bubble may, in addition to a bottom, include an endless wall having a rotationally symmetrical shape that extends between the bottom and the opening in the appurtenant panel. By its round shape, the bubble can be formed in a simple way because sharp corners are lacking.
In the last-mentioned embodiment, the endless wall may converge in the direction from the opening of the bubble toward the bottom thereof. In other words, the bubble is given—at least partly—a conical or tapering shape, which facilitates the insertion of the bubble into the individual seat and which also can be utilized to keep together adjacent packages in a bundle.
In one embodiment, the base part of the package is formed with two bubbles, which are mutually separated and located along a straight, first reference line, while the seats are located along a second reference line perpendicular to the same, the mutual distance between the bubbles being equal to the distance between the seats. When several packages are to be piled or packed together into a uniform set, the individual package is rotated 90° in relation to an adjacent package, the pair of bubbles fitting into the pair of seats in the adjacent package.
In a further embodiment, the panels of the cover and of the base part transform along peripheries into downwardly extending borders, the border of the cover of which is located on the outside of the one of the base part, when the cover is lowered. By means of these borders, the cover as well as the base part is stiffened separately, at the same time as the sealed package in its entirety obtains a good stiffness and strength. The height or depth of the borders amounts advantageously to half of the depth of the individual bubble. In such a way, the build height that arises when several packages are piled on each other is halved.
In the last-mentioned embodiments, the individual border along a lower boundary line may transform into a plane brim that protrudes laterally from said boundary line. Such brims contribute to stiffen the proper borders, so that these do not bend along their lower edges. In addition, the brims may be utilized to provide means for the suspension of the package as well as to provide a reliable locking of the cover in relation to the base part.
In a further developed embodiment, the above-mentioned brims may be extended, so that parts of the same form bottoms in the individual seats. In such a way, the individual bubble obtains a stable support, when it is inserted into the seat, at the same time as the comparatively narrow, central portion of each panel, which is present between two seats, is stiffened.
In yet an embodiment, the individual seat is delimited by a round wall running at an arc angle, which is greater than 180° but less than 360°, wherein the seat opens laterally. In this way, the package may be given a rectangular, elongate shape, which is distinguished by the fact that the rectangle has its greatest extension in the direction of the first reference axis, along which the bubbles are situated.
In one embodiment, the two panels may have a rectangular contour shape, the appurtenant borders including four corner portions, at least the two of which, which are farthest spaced apart from the hinge, include co-operating snap means having the purpose of snapping in the cover in its lowered position against the base part. By giving the panels, and thereby the package in its entirety, a rectangular basic shape, the package formed with two storage bubbles can be given a shape that, on one hand, has a sufficiently large surface area to be able to house a large number of information, but that, on the other hand, allows the packages to be piled or packed close to each other in a set having a limited volume.
In the last-mentioned embodiment, the material of the base part as well as of the cover may be transparent, besides which an information carrier, in the form of a sheet folded in two, is introduced between the under side of the panel included in the cover and the upper side of the panel included in the base part. In such a way, external information on the sheet can be seen from the upper side of the package as well as from its under side (at the same time as the proper cutting insert can be seen from the outside of the bubble). In addition, the sheet may carry internal information that can be read when the cover is raised.
In a preferred embodiment, the projection area of the individual panel may be at least three times larger than the total projection area of the two seats. In relation to the size of the stored articles and bubbles, thereby the available space for the exposure of information becomes ample.
In an embodiment intended for the storage of only one cutting insert, the base part of the package is formed with a solitary bubble, which is situated in a corner of an imaginary, equilateral triangle, in the two other corners of which the two seats are situated. In this case, the package can be realized in a very simple and cost-effective embodiment that allows dense packing when the individual packages have been rotated 120° in relation to each other.
In the last-mentioned embodiment, the seats may be through holes through the panels of the cover and of the base part, at least one of the panels no including spacer members, which have a height that amounts to one-third of the depth of the bubble. In such a way, three packages can be packed together into a pile set, the total build height of which is not more than the depth of the individual bubble.
In the last-mentioned embodiments, the individual spacer member may be a bulge situated in the vicinity of the individual hole. In this way, a stable three-point support is obtained for the individual packages in a piled or packed-up package set.